The technology that could change watching cricket forever

Imagine Alastair Cook facing Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the upcoming India vs England Test series — Cook gets bamboozled by a delivery which swings away from him, takes a slight nick and nestles in MS Dhoni’s gloves. You’re sitting at home, looking at it from a front view — you can see the swing, not once or twice but from multiple angles during replays. But what you really want to know is how Cook saw it — the speed wasn’t much so surely he saw the ball move? Or maybe he did see it and was carried away by the temptation to drive, or maybe the ball was actually too fast to gauge any movement. And then imagine, what if you can see it from the batsman’s point of view. It would be brilliant right? [caption id=“attachment_1607283” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  YouTube Screengrab.[/caption] There are so many such situations — Kieron Pollard hurling that bat towards Mitchell Starc in this year’s IPL, Brett Lee’s delivery breaking Shane Warne’s hand in the recent MCC vs RoW match at Lords, Mitchell Johnson’s fiery deliveries during the Ashes, batsmen talking to each other — wanting to know what they say when they meet at the middle of the pitch after every other delivery, and of course — everything Sachin Tendulkar.

If you’re reading this article on your phone, click here to watch the video Tell you what, there is such technology available — it’s a simple helmet camera and what’s more, Adam Gilchrist wore it during the Lord’s bicentenary celebration match while facing Shaun Tait to give you an sneak-peek of what it is like facing a bouncer and hooking it away for a boundary (video above). He then walks up to Virender Sehwag and makes him laugh. The speed of the ball in real-time is mesmerising and awe-inspiring, the excitement exponentially increases and it gives the viewer a completely different perspective. We’ve seen the umpire camera become popular during the IPL this year, but the helmet camera is what will make cricket so much better to watch. Simply put, it will change the rules.